Did you know that, thanks to something called "Low Profile", smaller heroes in Apex Legends take 5% more damage per hit? It's not a fact worth knowing for long, mind—because Respawn is planning to bin it with the game's next season, Legacy.
Respawn announced the change in a preview ahead of next month's new season. An inversion of the perk, Fortified, was given to legends with larger hitboxes (Gibraltar, Caustic) to offset how comparatively easy they are to hit, but it now seems the developer feels Low Profile isn't a great way to offset small characters' skinnier hitboxes.
"My goal is to remove it from every character in the game eventually, but we gotta figure out how to nerf Lifeline before we can do that," Respawn lead designer Daniel Klein said on Reddit after removing it from Pathfinder. Next season, Respawn plans to remove it from the remaining affected heroes, Wraith, Lifeline, and Wattson.
Indeed, Lifeline does seem to be in line for a major rework in the near future. But Respawn was more concerned with Octane in this preview. The team seem largely happy with where the nippy lad's sitting right now, but worry that he's become a bit too popular among players.
"We're carefully touching Octane a little bit because Octane's a lot of fun, and I don't want to take your fun away. But one in four picks in [battle royale] right now is a little much."
The problem, Respawn reckons, is that his stem ability is a no-brainer—the health penalty doesn't really matter, meaning players "just stem mindlessly". Expect to see stem's health hit become much harsher next season, with full details to come in the usual update devstream.
Apex Legends: Legacy arrives next Tuesday, May 4th. Along with jetpack-toting new hero Valkyrie, Legacy is bringing in an entirely new 3v3 gamemode, Arenas, along with a whole load of throwbacks to Titanfall 2.
